Freeranger Eggs is a free range egg farm at Grantville in the southern Australian state of Victoria. Our hens are never locked up, they are fed a natural diet of grains with no additives - and they are not beak-trimmed.
The only reason for removing the top part or even the tip of the beak is that when hens are confined in small spaces and in large numbers they often become aggressive and attack each other. On a true free range farm with plenty of space, all birds have full beaks.

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

This was published today in the Canberra Times and the Brisbane Times and perhaps other newspapers across the country. It is a comment piece written by John Birmingham and it paints an accurate picture of the Queensland Government decision to cave in to big business.

It’s hard to imagine anyone getting excited over the prospect of squeezing 10,000 chickens into something like a suburban block. But the local minister for chickens, John McVeigh, seems very excited indeed at the prospect. As no doubt are the giant egg producers who’ve been lobbying for years redefine ‘free range’ eggs as ‘free to make enormous sodding profits from a lot of gullible punters and even grumpier chickens’.If the industry could only sell millions more tasteless pale little yellow eggs from sad old cluckers imprisoned in closely packed sheds for the same price those free range hippies are selling their bloated inconveniently tasty golden eggs of goodness, why, the giant industrial farming companies which make up most of membership of the Australian Egg Corporation Limited would make a lot more money. You can see why a state government with close ties to an industrial agribusiness like factory-scale egg producers would want to give them a free ticket to cash in on people’s desire for a half decent goog into which to dip their Vegemite toast soldiers. But I can’t see why we’d let them get away with it. This is such a blatant shakedown. For some people, including most genuine free range farmers, it’s a matter of ethics, of not treating the chooks poorly. But even if you don’t much care about that, you should totally care that these bastards are trying to sell you a vastly inferior product at a grotesque mark up simply because their mates in the government have tipped them the nod to get away with it.

Friday, July 26, 2013

The Queensland Government's decision to amend the Animal Care and Protection Regulation
2012 to allow and allow greater stocking densities for free range layer hens is a complete cave-in to Coles supermarket and corporate egg preoducers.

The regulation previously
limited stocking density to 1,500 birds per hectare a step taken some years ago to enforce a major provision of the Model Code. It argues that other states allow
higher densities and this placed
Queensland egg farmers at a disadvantage.

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

PETA has written a letter to an egg producer offering to give charity up to $3400 if he confines himself to cage.The animal welfare group’s proposal has been made to egg producer Andrew Postregna who owns Tamarix Egg Farm in Dandenong South and states that PETA will donate $100 per hour to charity if Mr Postregna confines himself to a cage of similar proportions to his body, as the chickens' cages are to theirs for 34 hours, the time it takes a chicken to produce an egg.

PETA's Australia campaigns director Jason Baker said the group made the proposal to Mr Postregna after a statement he made on the Australian Egg Corporation Limited website.

Mr Baker said that Mr Postregna wrote on the website: "When there's a few birds in a cage they tend to know each other. They're happy. Their stress levels seem to be a lot less than what it is in free-range [chickens]".

Mr Baker said maybe after Mr Postregna gets a real feel for being caged, he'll stop claiming that caged hens are "happy".

Mr Postregna had not received any letter from PETA when the Weekly Times Now contacted him.

PETA's campaign co-ordinator Claire Fryer said the letter had been faxed and posted.

Wednesday, July 03, 2013

Environmental Management Systems have
become essential tools for maintaining the sustainability of farms and
other rural enterprises. Many egg producers have already implemented
full EMS procedures on their farms.

An EMS is a flexible business
management system that helps farmers develop their own strategies for
integrating environmental considerations into the daily operations of
a farm. An EMS builds on existing management strategies, such as
emergency, pest, or nutrient management plans.

It can be critical in improving
environmental performance, reducing livestock health risks, assisting
with regulatory compliance and improving the farm's reputation and
community relationships.

An initial part of the EMS process is
to clarify the farm environmental policy — how the farm identifies
and addresses environmental concerns. Once an environmental policy is
in place it helps to influence the development of a management system for on-farm activities. The
policy guides the business through planning, implementing and
reviewing farm management decisions that affect the environment, as well as the bottom line.

It allows for improved farm
management and continual improvement of an operation.

Contact us if you want more info or help in developing an EMS for your farm.

About Me

With a background in journalism and public relations in the UK, Africa and Australia, I've been farming for over 30 years. I'm an Environmental Auditor and have been an egg industry auditor as well as a former President of the Free Range Egg and Poultry Association of Australia and the Free Range Farmers Association of Victoria.
Our farm has been designed for sustainable land management and we have a long involvement with Landcare. I have carried out regional flora and fauna surveys and have also run courses and lectured on community development, land management and run workshops on sustainability and setting up free range egg farms. .
The Freeranger Farm runs sheep, cattle and horses as well as laying hens - a genuine mixed farm. Everything on the farm is designed for minimal impact. As much as possible recycled materials are used, solar power helps to achieve our sustainability aims and the farm is not just carbon neutral - it is carbon positive.
Even our main shed, which includes the farm office, egg grading room, storage and maintenance facilities, was constructed mainly using recycled steel sections purchased at a farm clearing sale.